In early 2010, Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, gave a much-lauded speech on Internet freedom, promising to make online freedoms part of the “American brand”.
At the time, most discussion surrounding the topic in mainstream media was focused almost entirely on Iran and China, two countries well known for their restrictive practices toward the Internet. Clinton focused largely on the two countries, but also noted restrictions on online speech in Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Egypt, and Vietnam, arguing for the development of tools to circumvent Internet filtering and pushing for information freedom.
The Department of State’s Internet freedom agenda, dubbed “21st Century Statecraft”, was well received but managed to raise the ire of various pundits over the course of the past year as they noticed a disconnect between Clinton’s words and the government’s actions.
Much of that ire stemmed from the Department of State’s treatment of WikiLeaks in late 2010, with particular focus on what was effectively censorship by intermediaries Amazon and PayPal, both of which cut off Wikileaks from their services.
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